About the Exhibit:

Give Light

Labor Drawings, Posters, Art and Graphics from Movements Celebrating Labor History, People’s Art, and Popular Liberation

The exhibition title Give Light comes from Ella Baker’s quote “Give light and people will find the way.” In this spirit, the artists and collectives included in Give Light — Little Manila Queens Bayanihan Arts, Indonesia’s Taring Padi, Bushwick’s Mi Casa Resiste, Australia’s Workers Art Collective, South Africa’s International Labour Research & Information Group, Josh MacPhee, Alicia Grullón, Leilani Derr, and more — dare to imagine liberatory possibilities and interconnected forms of solidarity. The work included in the exhibition helps us to visualize the potential of our movements and our power. It reminds us that all our struggles are connected and calls for the rebellious hope we need at this moment, to unite in global solidarity and keep each other healthy and safe.

Organized by Annabelle Heckler, Ingrid Romero, Jaclyn Reyes, and Josh MacPhee.

Give Light is presented as part of the conference Labor and the Crisis of Democracy: Working-Class Politics in an Age of Authoritarianism. Thank you to CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, especially Dr. Alethia Jones and Sarah Watson. Additionally, thank you to CUNY Social Practice, Alicia Grullón, Chloë Bass, Crystal Clarity, Dennis Lapid Madamba, Leila Khan, Leilani Nobuko Derr, Mario Fong, Mikaela González, Nafisa Ferdous, Sam Wallman, and artists and collectives from across our movements.